Sports drinks. I remember a time when the only sports drink was Gator Aid, and it came in just 3 flavors, Lemon, Lemon Lime and Fruit Punch. Back then it was truly an acquired taste, and tasted nothing like the sugar filled stuff it is now.

I'm sorry, I just hate crap like this. Tons of claims, zero source material. Let's go to the breakdown!

1. Microwave Popcorn (PFOA) -I can't find any corroborating scientific evidence on this. I've found info on perfluorooctanoic acid (a carcinogen) being used in the manufacture of teflon, but it is not used in the manufacturing process of teflon cookware. I can't find anything (other than sites like MNN) stating this is being used in microwave popcorn. In order to break down teflon, it needs to be heated to about 500 degrees Fahrenheit, and a 1959 FDA study showed that the toxicity of fumes given off by the coated pan on dry heating was less than that of fumes given off by ordinary cooking oils.[1]

2. Meats (fats, nitrates and other preservatives) -Sodium Nitrate was a common preservative in meats, this is true. The first documented cases of reaction with meats to cause a strand of nitrosamine (of which there are 18, 10 being carcinogenic) was in the 1970s, when it was used to preserve fish reacting with the dimethylamine in the fish and produced dimethylnitrosamine.[2] In the past 20 years meat manufacturing has all but eliminated sodium nitrate as a preservative, opting instead for ascorbate and erythorbate, both known to deplete residual nitrite and inhibit the production of N-nitrosamines.[3]

3. Canned Tomatoes (BPA) -Cans were commonly lined with bisophenal-A (BPA). So were many other things, the one pointed to most often during legislative hearings over the substance was baby formula containers. In 2009 The Endocrine Society released a statement expressing concern over potential health risk, which fueled legislators in the US and abroad to act. Bisphenol A is an endocrine disruptor, which can mimic the body's own hormones and may lead to negative health effects.[4][5] An editorial in the same issue the mentioned Lang Study was published in noted that while this preliminary study needs to be confirmed and cannot prove causality, there is precedent for analogous effects in animal studies, which adds biological plausibility to the results reported by Lang et al.[6] Due to it's prolific use, many of us already have it at some level in our systems. Studies by the CDC found bisphenol A in the urine of 95% of adults sampled in 1988-1994[93] and in 93% of children and adults tested in 2003-04.[6]

The issue here is that there has been no causal link between BPA and any of the negative health effects that have been attributed to it. There just aren't adequate studies yet. The FDA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission both agree, given present data, BPA is safe.[7] This has caused much controversy, as one would expect. However, as I mentioned, legislators are "preemptively" acting[9] (whether you think this to be good or bad is a matter of personal belief). Most countries have banned the use of BPA in baby products that contain consumables as well as in pacifiers. A handful of states have as well. US manufacturers of infant products have also stopped using BPA voluntarily.

4. Kids Yogurt (Artificial colors and sugar) -I honestly can't find ANY information on artificial colors being bad for human consumption. If you find some, please let me know. I would like to learn about that. There is a lot of info about the potential link to ADD and ADHD, but that has been mostly refuted. I found an article about how blue food dye helped rats with spinal injuries regain or retain motor control.[8] That's actually pretty damn cool.

As for the added sugars, yeah probably bad. So bad it negates the positive effects? Show me the studies please. The advise given is sound though. Buy good high-protein yogurt with active cultures and add your own sliced fruit. It's better anyway.

5. Sports Drinks (no discernible reason given) -The obvious scapegoat here is the salts that can cause kidney damage with over consumption. So, yeah, that's bad. But on a hot day with rigorous outdoor activity, your body needs to replenish those salts. The solution here is not avoidance, but proper application.

Really hippies? Fat is bad and causes colon cancer in children? How many actual farking statistical studies do you have on that? Because I'm betting that colon cancer is such a diminishingly rare issue for children that it can't be declaratively and definitively linked to your farking hot dogs.

Fat is demonstrably NOT bad for you; the brain and body need it, as all of the paleo people will lovingly tell you for 400 hours.

I actually agree about the sugar stuff. But they show their hand when they go 'FEED THE BASTARDS CHOCOLCATE MALK!!' in the sports drink section. Guess what? Chocomalk is just as high in sugar as your nemesis sport drinks. If not more. It's a soda.

I'm not a parent, nor an extraordinarily healthy eater. But I always wonder why you see parents giving a 5-month-old ice cream, or cake, or candy. They have no benchmark on junk food. Why not cram their gullets with as much wholesomely unappealing vegetables you can until they discover sugar on their own? I mean yeah the gig will eventually be up, but this seems like an avoidable problem to me.

Microwave popcorn. Up until about five years ago, I had never even heard of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA. It's the chemical used to line the bags of microwave popcorn so that they don't catch on fire. And while I'm a big fan of keeping flaming microwaves at bay, I'm alarmed by the fact that PFOA has been linked to cancer, postponed puberty, thyroid disease and high cholesterol in kids.

Hey, maybe it will cancel out the early onset puberty linked to dairy products.

If I want San Marzano tomatoes for my red sauce, I have to use canned.

This.

Anyway, the FDA has done pretty thorough analysis on the (lack of) toxicity of BPA in the amounts found from food products and deemed it to be safe. Until I see anything game changing to the contrary, I'm not sacrificing my canned tomatoes.

Odin's Other Eye:Demiglace: Odin's Other Eye: Why does ANYONE eat microwaved popcorn? It takes maybe 5 minutes to make a big pot of real popcorn, and it tastes SO MUCH BETTER. Even with a ton of butter, it's one of the best snacks out there.

My kid gets a fair amount of processed meat - you can't be a kid in Norway and not eat pølse (hot dogs) - but why anyone would give their kids "sports drinks", sugared cereal or kid yogurt I don't understand. Tomatoes here come in cartons, and BPA was outlawed a long time ago, so I think we're ok there.

But seriously. Kids will like plain yogurt with a little honey or jam in it. Kids will eat a lot of things if you don't make them afraid of it - they don't need special "kid food." Plain cereal is fine, or just eat some good toast or something. Feed your kids food - it doesn't have to be super organic kelp flakes, just regular old food - and run them like dogs. They'll do fine.

If you're extremely active you end up sweating up a storm which can make it helpful to drink something like a sports drink to help with quenching your thirst, since just drinking water on its own won't really hydrate you if there's no salts/electrolytes.

I remember hearing as a kid how some kids would get salt tablets from their coach to help out in longer games for instance.

So if you have kids that are really running around playing a large amount then it is somewhat sensible to try a sport's drink.

I guess I can grant you that. But water works pretty ok, too. And usually when I see kids drinking "sports drinks" it is in a completely non-sports-related context. It's like Vitamin Water - the labeling makes you think it's good for you, when mostly, it's just another kind of sugar water.

TFA kind of tip-toes around this if you read it. I'm not looking at the exact quotes, but: "If they are just thirsty sports give them water." "If you want a recovery drink after sports, try chocolate milk." They don't mention DURING the activity. It's almost as if the author put in there "sports drinks are for during the game" and the editor had them redact it because then they'd be sending a mixed message.

dready zim:You have cans with plastic lining on the inside? I was worried because I eat tinned tomatoes but I`ve never seen that. I was wondering how plastic got into a metal can. I`ll avoid those if I see them.

The plastic lined cans weremarketed as a way to stop the contents from interacting with the metal. I've always assumed it was in the cans with a white plastic lining, and I haven't seen those in awhile. But, as I looked for a photo of one, a lot of the articles use stock photos of normal cans. So, either the lining is invisible, or a lot of the authors are too lazy to track down can that is actually lined with a BPA plastic.

Nowhere in the article does it say that. Your reading comprehension is atrocious and your entire rant is based on what you imagine you read. It says that the high amount of fat, in addition to the other things referenced in the sentence, are bad for kids. Which is correct. A single hot dog can easily have more than a quarter of a day's recommended fat limit for an adult yet provides less than 1/10 of the calorie need.

As for the colon cancer claim, it's been well known for some time now that the high level of nitrites in processed meats is a contributor to increased risk of colorectal cancer. This isn't new.

Because I'm betting that colon cancer is such a diminishingly rare issue for children that it can't be declaratively and definitively linked to your farking hot dogs.

Yea, right. It's so hard to quantify it only takes one Google result to start getting solid numbers.

Kyro:I'm not a parent, nor an extraordinarily healthy eater. But I always wonder why you see parents giving a 5-month-old ice cream, or cake, or candy. They have no benchmark on junk food. Why not cram their gullets with as much wholesomely unappealing vegetables you can until they discover sugar on their own? I mean yeah the gig will eventually be up, but this seems like an avoidable problem to me.

skozlaw:legion_of_doo: processed meat. i recall reading something about natural nitrites like celery juice. the funny thing being that chemistry dont give a damn if shiat is natural or not. plus, we like spam. and bacon. and hot dogs.

Why does ANYONE eat microwaved popcorn? It takes maybe 5 minutes to make a big pot of real popcorn, and it tastes SO MUCH BETTER. Even with a ton of butter, it's one of the best snacks out there.

My kid gets a fair amount of processed meat - you can't be a kid in Norway and not eat pølse (hot dogs) - but why anyone would give their kids "sports drinks", sugared cereal or kid yogurt I don't understand. Tomatoes here come in cartons, and BPA was outlawed a long time ago, so I think we're ok there.

But seriously. Kids will like plain yogurt with a little honey or jam in it. Kids will eat a lot of things if you don't make them afraid of it - they don't need special "kid food." Plain cereal is fine, or just eat some good toast or something. Feed your kids food - it doesn't have to be super organic kelp flakes, just regular old food - and run them like dogs. They'll do fine.

legion_of_doo:microwave popcorn. is it really that hard to make popcorn? yes, rhetorical. no, it isnt hard, and it's more economical to buy regular popping corn. plus, you can still microwave it if you wanted to.

processed meat. i recall reading something about natural nitrites like celery juice. the funny thing being that chemistry dont give a damn if shiat is natural or not. plus, we like spam. and bacon. and hot dogs.

Yeah it's extremely easy to microwave popcorn, and tastes a lot better when you use things like real butter for the topping.

microwave popcorn. is it really that hard to make popcorn? yes, rhetorical. no, it isnt hard, and it's more economical to buy regular popping corn. plus, you can still microwave it if you wanted to.

processed meat. i recall reading something about natural nitrites like celery juice. the funny thing being that chemistry dont give a damn if shiat is natural or not. plus, we like spam. and bacon. and hot dogs.